Death Penalty News

New mass execution in Iran

2009-07-15T19:09:00.000+02:00

July 14, 2009: In a mass prison execution, Iran hanged 13 rebels from the Sunni insurgent group Jundallah as "enemies of God" for a string of attacks, including kidnapping of foreigners.

The official IRNA news agency said the insurgents were executed in prison in Zahedan.

"Thirteen members of this group were hanged this morning," provincial judiciary chief Ebrahim Hamidi was quoted as saying.

The rebels were accused of being "mohareb" (enemies of God) and of "kidnapping foreigners, killing innocents and of carrying out terrorist acts for the Jundallah group," IRNA said, quoting a local judiciary statement.

Media reports that Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of Jundallah leader Abdolmalik Rigi, was executed were denied by Hamidi, who said Rigi would be executed later this week.

Source: AFP, 14/07/2009

Ohio: John Fautenberry executed

2009-07-14T20:22:00.001+02:00

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Multistate serial killer John Fautenberry was executed this morning for the 1991 murder of a 46-year-old father of two who picked him up while hitchhiking near Cincinnati.

Fautenberry, 45, was lethally injected at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. The time of death was 10:37 a.m. He had no final statement, and did not look to either the victims' families or his spiritual adviser as the deadly drugs began flowing into his system. After a few minutes, he closed his eyes and silently died.

Rachel Daron, 23, the Ohio victim's daughter, came to the prison but did not witness the execution. She told reporters later she came "to get closure, to know it's real, it really happened, and it's over.

"I just saw him in the hearse. That's good enough for me."

Charlene Farmer of Springfield, Tenn., mother of a New Jersey victim, did witness the execution. She said later, "His pain has ended -- mine has not. I think he got off pretty easy considering what I've gone through for 18 years."

She said she hopes today's execution will deter potential killers: "You don't just kill that person. You need to think about you're killing a whole family."

Fautenberry requested an unusual combination for his last meal: two eggs sunny side up, two pieces of fried bologna, two pieces of toast with butter and jelly, four slices of tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise, fried potatoes, four pieces of white bread, two Three Musketeers candy bars and two packs of Reese's Cup candy.

Over a six-month period in late 1990 and early 1991, Fautenberry, a former over-the-road truck driver, killed five people in four states. His ultimate undoing was the murder of Joseph Daron Jr., 46, on Feb. 17, 1991.

While hitchhiking on I-275, Fautenberry was picked up by Daron, who drove 20 miles out of his way to drop him off at a restaurant along I-71. Fautenberry shot Daron twice, dumped his body on the north bank of the Ohio River, and used the dead man's vehicle, cash and credit cards to head to Oregon.

Before arriving in Ohio, records show that Fautenberry killed Donald Nutley in Oregon and Gary Farmer in New Jersey. Later, he murdered Christine Guthrie in Oregon and Jefferson Difee in Alaska.

Fautenberry did not submit a clemency request; the Ohio Parole Board and Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency. The killer's 11th-hour request for a neuro-psychological examination was rebuffed by two federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

He was the second person executed in Ohio this year -- Daniel Wilson of Lorain was put to death on June 3 -- and the 30th to die since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, July 14, 2009

Oklahoma: Michael DeLozier Executed

2009-07-10T01:36:00.004+02:00

McALESTER, Okla. -- A man convicted of the 1995 shooting deaths of two campers in southern Oklahoma has been put to death.

Michael P. DeLozier, 32, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

DeLozier was executed for the Sept. 24, 1995, deaths of Orville Lewis Bullard and Paul Steven Morgan. According to court documents, DeLozier and two others ambushed Morgan and Bullard at their campsite along the Glover River, shot them and stole their vehicle and equipment.

Attorneys for DeLozier had asked the appeals court for a stay of execution and a new evidentiary hearing, but the state Court of Criminal Appeals denied the request on Thursday.

Source: The Associated Press, July 9, 2009

India's top court refuses to replace hanging with lethal injection

2009-07-07T19:13:00.004+02:00

July 6, 2009: India's top court has refused to replace hanging with lethal injection as the country's sole method of execution, saying there is no evidence it is less painful than other ways.

Monday's ruling rejected a petition by rights activist Ashok Kumar Walia, who said hanging was a "cruel and painful" method of execution and should be replaced by lethal injection, which is used in more than 30 U.S. states as a primary method of execution.

"How do you know that hanging causes pain? And how do you know that injecting the condemned prisoner with a lethal drug would not cause pain?" Supreme Court Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said.

Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam said experts believe that hanging — meant to dislocate the neck and sever the spinal cord — causes instant death.

The judges suggested that Walia instead campaign for abolition of the death penalty in India.

The judges noted that the death penalty is awarded only in the "rarest of rare" cases.

Source: AP, 06/07/2009

Death penalty 'exonerations'

2009-07-07T13:16:00.005+02:00

Recently, I made another reference to the number of Death Row inmates across the country who have been spared execution because of exonerations of one form or another. The Death Penalty Information Center keeps this count -- it is presently 133 -- and it has been verified elsewhere in the mainstream press. When I first started using the numbers from DPIC, I conducted Sun archive and Internet searches to independently check the exonerations, and found a large sampling of them to be accurate.

But, at the same time, I think "exonerations" should only be used when a person is convicted but later found to be innocent of the murder that resulted in a sentence of death. That is the popular meaning of "exoneration," and yet the DPIC uses it to cover those whose convictions have been overturned because of legal flaws.

A reader of my column wrote to challenge my acceptance of the word "exoneration" as shorthand for all those who have been removed for various reasons from Death Row. The reader cited a report of a victims' rights organization, the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which challenged the DPIC numbers and definition of "exonerated."

Here is the reply to questions about the accuracy of the exonerations list from Richard Dieter, DPIC director.

The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education on the death penalty in the U.S. We do not have a position on the morality or rightness of the death penalty per se, though a number of our reports focus on the problems in capital punishment and hence have been critical of the way it is applied.

With respect to your question about our list of exonerated individuals, we use very strict and objective criteria for inclusion of cases on this list. Basically, the list is determined by the decisions of courts and prosecutor offices, not by our subjective judgment. As we state in a number of places on our Web site and in our reports, the criteria for inclusion on the list is:

Defendants must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either-

a) their conviction was overturned AND
i) they were acquitted at re-trial or
ii) all charges were dropped
b) they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence.

The list includes cases where the release occurred in 1973 or later, which was the time that states resumed sentencing people to death after the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down the death penalty. The list originated from a request from Congress asking us to identify the risks that innocent people might be executed. The original list that we prepared was published as a Staff Report of the House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. The list has been favorably referred to by Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts, as well as by many public officials around the country.

We believe the term "exonerated" is entirely appropriate to refer to the individuals on this list, which now numbers 133 individuals. Exonerate means to clear, as of an accusation, and seems to come from the Latin "ex" and "onus" meaning to unburden. That is precisely what has occurred in these cases. The defendants were convicted, given a burden of guilt, and then that burden was lifted when they were acquitted at a re-trial or the prosecution dropped all charges after the conviction was reversed. These are not individuals who received a lesser sentence or who remained guilty of a lesser charge related to the same set of circumstances. All guilt was lifted by the same system that had imposed it in the first place. Our justice system is the only objective source for making such a determination.

This notion of innocence, that an individual is innocent unless proven guilty, is a bedrock principle of our constitution and our societal protection against abusive state power. One does not lose the status of innocence merely because a prosecutor or other individuals retain a suspicion of guilt. Of course, it is true that this list makes no god-like determination of knowing exactly what happened in the original crime. Such perfect knowledge of past events is impossible, either to absolutely prove that a person did or did not do an act. We do not try to make a subjective judgment of what we think happened in the crime. We are merely reporting that in a great many cases the justice system convicted an individual and sentenced them to death, but when the process that arrived at that conclusion was reviewed, the conviction and sentence were thrown out. The individual, who often came close to execution, could not even be convicted of a traffic violation. Surely, that should be a cause of concern in applying the death penalty.

Maybe "exoneration" isn't the most accurate word here. But Dieter has a point -- if a conviction was wrongly achieved, our system says that conviction is thrown out and the the justice system returns to square one for the accused. However you shake this, at least 133 people were put on Death Row and slated for execution who should not have been there. These were near-fatal mistakes, in the eyes of our system, way too much imperfection in the area of criminal justice, above all, that requires perfection.

Source: Random Rodricks, The Baltimore Sun, July 6, 2009

Iran: New suppressive measures by Judiciary to combat popular uprising

2009-07-06T23:47:00.002+02:00

Mullah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, the Iranian regime's Judiciary Chief, in a statement on Sunday, while showing the regime's fear of the role of "the daily growth of anti-regime satellite channels" in increasing the people's uprising, called for "serious measures to confront this phenomenon" and urged "The honorable provincial judiciary chiefs and judges across the country" to dedicate "a branch of the prosecutor's office" to this work in order to issue "comprehensive and preventative sentences" on this matter and "suitable judicial action is taken, based on articles 498, 499, 500, 504, 508 and the subsection of article 510 of the Islamic penal code, against people who in some manner cooperate with the aforementioned networks or become members of organizational cells which are formed via internet websites." (State-run news agency ISNA, July 5, 2009) The articles mentioned fall within the definition of "acting against national security."

According to Article 498, "anyone, with any tendency, who forms or runs a group, association or organization of more than 2 people inside or outside the country under any name, the purpose of which is to disrupt national security and who is not found to be waging war on God will be sentenced to 2 to 10 years imprisonment." Under the regime's Penal code, waging war on God is punishable by death.

Article 504 states, "Anyone who encourages the armed forces or those who are in any manner at the service of the armed forces to rebel, escape, surrender or not carry out their military duties, if it is determined that the person's goal is to topple the system or let our forces be defeated by the enemy, is considered as waging war on God, and if otherwise not successful in the actions will be sentenced to 2 to 10 years imprisonment."

Therefore, in the eyes of the religious fascism ruling Iran, people who cooperate with satellite TV networks and internet sites should be sentenced to execution or at least 2 years imprisonment.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described this callous action by the ruling mullahs as a sign of the weakness and enormous vulnerability of the regime which sees even the smallest amount of news freely reaching the Iranian people as a threat. The mullahs try in vain to frighten the population and subdue the uprising through a wave of arrests and executions.

Mrs. Rajavi warned that the inhuman regime plans to launch widespread arrests, and urged the UN Secretary General, Security Council and all international human rights organizations to condemn the suppressive measures by the regime's Judiciary and take urgent action to save the lives of those arrested in the course of the Iranian people's nationwide uprising.

Source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, July 6, 2009

Yemen executes man for rape, killing 11-year-old

2009-07-06T23:45:00.004+02:00

Yahia al-Raghwa, 22, was found guilty of raping and murdering Hamdi Abdullah, 11, at his barber shop in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, last December.

He was shot by a firing squad in a public square in the capital on Monday, in the presence of hundreds of people including the family of the victim.

Photographs of the execution showed al-Raghwa being led by guards to the square before he was forced to kneel. He was then shot in the back of the head in public view before his body was dragged away.

His death brings the number of executions in the country this year to nine.

Yemen is one of 59 countries which retains the death penalty, and one of its most prolific users, according to Amnesty International.

It is deployed for a variety of violent and non-violent crimes including apostasy and adultery.

Last year Yemen executed 13 people, according to those Amnesty has verified. But as no official figures are released the real toll could be far higher.

All of those died by firing squad but in recent years there have been reports of stonings and beheadings.

The deeply religious desert country has a poor human rights record and it is unclear if al-Raghwa had a fair trial.

Under sharia law, which applies in Yemen, relatives of the victims of certain categories of murder have the power to pardon the offender in exchange for compensation, grant a pardon freely or request his or her execution.

Source: telegraph.co.uk, July 7, 2009

China executes 2 for attack before Olympics

2009-07-06T11:37:00.000+02:00

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Two men were executed Thursday for an attack on police that killed 17 in northwestern China in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, state-run media reported.

Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, were sentenced to death on December 17 after being convicted of homicide and illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives, the Xinhua news agency said.

The Uyghur men, who were armed with knives, axes and explosives, rammed a stolen truck into a group of 70 police officers in Kashgar, Xinjiang, authorities said. They then flung explosives at a police station and stabbed officers. Fifteen people were injured in the attack, in addition to the 17 killed.

Azat and Hemit were executed at an unknown location, the news agency said. It did not say how they were executed.

The August 4, 2008, attack happened four days before the Olympics. Chinese authorities regarded the violence as a terrorist act, saying they knew of five groups in the region that were plotting to sabotage the Olympics, Xinhua said.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region -- also called East Turkistan -- is home to a Sunni Muslim ethnic minority. Uyghurs in Xinjiang are supposed to have regional autonomy, as guaranteed by China's constitution, but some seek independence.

Millions of Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group, have migrated into Xinjiang over the past 60 years, prompting complaints that they dominate local politics, culture and commerce at the Uyghurs' expense. The dissatisfaction has turned violent at times, including several bus bombings in 1992 in the provincial capital, Urumqi.

Officials blamed such incidents on Uyghur groups seeking an independent Muslim state, but China says few Uyghurs support the separatists.

Source: CNN.com, July 9, 2009

Egypt: Activists decry death penalty trend

2009-07-05T12:01:00.003+02:00

Alarmed by a sharp rise in the number of death sentences passed by the country's courts, human rights activists in Egypt have stepped up their campaign seeking abolition of capital punishment, which, they say, has failed to have the desired deterrent effect on the crime rate.

"The Egyptian authorities have to reconsider capital punishment, which has not succeeded in bringing down violence and crime in society," said Hafez Abu Saeda, a prominent rights activist.

"What would be the case if a death inmate was found to be innocent after his execution?" he said in remarks to Gulf News.

"My organisation is planning a series of seminars and workshops to educate the public and the officials concerned about the serious dangers involved in keeping the death penalty," added Abu Saeda, who is the chairman of the Egyptian Organisation for Human rights, a non-governmental group.

Over the past 6 months, Egyptian courts have sent more than 90 people to the gallows, the latest being business tycoon Hesham Tala'at Mustafa, and Mohssen Al Sukkari, an ex-policeman, who were convicted of the murder of Lebanese pop singer Suzan Tamim in Dubai in July 2008.

June has proved to be the month with the highest number of death sentences so far this year with 68 rulings. In comparison, a total of 70 death sentences were handed out in 2007 and 2008, according to legal experts. The spate of death sentences reflects spiralling violence in the Arab world's most populous country, say sociologists.

Earlier this year, Khalil Qeweita, an MP of President Hosni Mubarak's party, tabled a motion in parliament demanding the execution of rape offenders be broadcast on television "to deter would-be rapists". His suggestion has already earned the approval of a legislative committee and the censure of rights activists.

"I wrote to the Speaker of the Parliament asking him not to endorse this draft Bill, which contradicts Egypt's international obligations," Abu Saeda said.

Egypt is one of 14 countries in the world seen enforcing the death penalty on a large scale, according to the UN. Abduction, rape, murder and drug dealing are among the offences punishable by death under Egyptian law. "The recent death rulings were passed to deter the upsurge of crimes in Egypt," said Ahmad Abdul Rahman, a lawyer at criminal courts, attributing
the surge in violence in recent years to "a lack of religious adherence and severe economic hardships". Around 40 % of Egypt's 80 million population are believed to live below the poverty line.

Growing tally: Prominent cases

Prominent among the cases culminating in death sentences in June were:

- On June 1, a criminal court in Giza, south of Cairo, sentenced an unemployed local man to death for killing the driver of a tok-tok (a 3-wheeled cab)

- On June 7, a criminal court in northern Cairo condemned to death an engineer for killing his wife and 2 children

- On June 9, a court in Benha, north of Cairo, sentenced to death 7 people for a killing spree over a clan feud

- On June 13, a criminal court in Beheira sentenced 24 people to death for killing 11 others in a dispute over a piece of land

- On June 14, a criminal court in Giza sent a couple to the gallows for killing their employer with the intent to commit theft

- On June 17, a criminal court in Cairo condemned to death a young man for killing 2 girls, 1 of them the daughter of Moroccan singer Laila Gufran, in an apartment near Cairo late last year

- On June 25, a criminal court in southern Cairo upheld death rulings earlier passed against construction mogul Hesham Tala'at Mustafa and ex-policeman Mohsen Al Sukkari for murdering Lebanese pop star Suzan Tamim in Dubai last year.

10 people executed since start of this year

Since the start of 2009, 10 people on death row have been executed, according to prison sources. There are no official figures yet.

The 10 executed were convicted of abducting and gang-raping a woman in the delta province of Kafr Al Shaikh. The court of cassation upheld the death sentence passed against them by a criminal court.

Convicts can stay for more than 1 year in prison before the execution is carried out.

Source: Gulf News, July 5, 2009

20 people were executed in Iran on July 4, 2009

2009-07-05T11:55:00.002+02:00

According to the state run Iranian news agency Fars, 20 people were hanged in the Rajaee shahr prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) early this morning July 4. The report also said that "all those hanged were convicted of drug trafficking between 2004 and 2008, and were between 35 and 48 years of age".

On July 3., Iran Human Rights warned that 29 prisoners were scheduled to be executed in Tehran today July 4.

Iran Human Rights is investigating whether among those executed, there were people arrested in connection with the recent pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran. Rajaee shahr prison is commonly not used for executions but under special situations.

"34 people have been executed in Iran in the past 4 days, and 26 of the executions have taken place in Tehran. There is no doubt that these executions are meant to spread fear among the people and suppress further the pro-democracy movement in Iran" said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesperson of Iran Human Rights.

He added: "Several thousand people have been arrested following the last 3 weeks' demonstrations in Iran. Many of them are in danger of torture, forced confession and execution. The world community, UN, EU and all countries with diplomatic ties with Iran must do whatever they can in order to stop the bloodshed started by the Iranian regime."

Amiry-Moghaddam continued:"The world must act now, before it is too late! We also ask the world community to support the legitimate demands of the Iranian people and not to recognize results of the recent Iranian election."

Source: Iranhr.net, July 4, 2009

July 4, 2009

2009-07-05T00:29:00.002+02:00

Across America today, on Independence Day, there will be traditional fireworks, parades, summer fun for children in swimming pools and at ballgames, and a pervasive national outpouring of patriotism, reflected in both flag displays and the singing of the national anthem at countless events.

There are also almost 3,300 individuals who will not be any part of these festivities; they are mostly forgotten, despised and reviled.... they are America's condemned.

They sit on death rows in 34 states, as well as in a military prison in Kansas and a fedeal facility in Indiana. Most are overwhelmingly guilty of vile, heinous, outrageous and terrible crimes. Many are mentally ill, even profoundly mentally ill, and a good number are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. Collectively, they are, in part, responsible for a great deal of anger, hurt, pain and rage in our society.

They face death by firing squad, hanging, electrocution, cyanide gas, and lethal injection (there are more methods of legitimate state-sanctioned execution in the the USA than in any other country in the world).

As this nation is trying to emerge from the worst global financial crisis in 70 years, it remains in desperate need of trying to find, uphold and defend its moral soul. We are a long way from accomplishing this important national task.

Most of America's political and judicial leaders, both male and female, in both major parties, remain committed to upholding the ideology and practice of human extermination. As long as any nation in the world, inclduing the USA, retain and practice the barbarism of killing people in the name of the law, they can never be free. If people support, or are indifferent to the liquidataion of condemned individuals, how can we be surprised that other horrors, such as torture, hate crimes, and crimes against women, continue at such an alarming pace.

To be sure, some advances in the abolition of the US death penalty have been achieved in the last decade: America has stopped executing its juvenile and mentally retarded offenders; New Jersey and New Mexico have legislatively ended the death penalty, and other states have, in recent years, come close to doing the same. Over 130 innocent people have been released from America's death rows to date, and more will emerge to the free world in the years ahead.

But this "progress" has come at a frustratingly, agonizinly slow pace. Of the 1168 individuals put to death in America since executions resumed in 1977, 736 have occurred since 1998, including 200 just in Texas alone since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. There is no immediate end in sight to this horror.

There will undoubtedly be the traditional praise and self-congratulatory editorials and op-eds in our newspapers today, from coast to coast, from our major cities to our small communities, reminding us of how lucky we are to live in such a great nation. And in many ways, that sentiment is correct.

But it is a fallacy to believe that assessment when considering what is happening in this country regarding the issue of the death penalty. It is time to face the truth, admit national pain, and come to grips with the fact that on this issue, 233 years after the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed (and 402 years after the British first settled here), we are a national disgrace and failure. We remain wedded to the love of violence, and to the preposterous idea that some people in our society (and even around the world), can be classified as "lesser" or "other" humans, 'deserving' to be stripped of their human dignity, caged like animals for years, physically and psychologically tortured and terrorized, and then ultimately liquidated in the name of the law.

On this day, when so much celebrating in America will occur, I hope and trust that people will take a hard look at the sobering realities of this nation and its nightmare of the death penalty. Now is the time for all people of conscience, everywhere, to re-dedicate themselves with renewed fervor to end this terrible scourge, so that America may join the ranks of most nations in the world that have long since recognized the links between advancing human progress with ending the death penalty.

When the US does abolish the death penalty, it will then, and only then, have reasons to be proud and celebrate itself.

Rick Halperin
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and
Amnesty International USA

July 4, 2009

Iran: new hangings

2009-07-03T21:18:00.001+02:00

July 1, 2009: Iran hanged six people for murder, and two others were spared by the families of their victims at the last minute.

The execution of a ninth convicted murderer, who was 16 at the time of his crime in 1992, was postponed on the order of judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, the Etemad newspaper said.

Etemad quoted a judge as saying some of the six people put to death in Tehran's Evin prison were convicted of killing their spouses, without giving other details on their crimes or their identities.

Source: Reuters, 02/07/2009

July 2, 2009: Six men were hanged in the prison of Qom, south of Tehran, reported the state run Iranian news agency Fars.

The men were identified as Ahmad T., Abolfazl B., Reza A., Mostafa F., Esmaeil R. and Mohammad Kh. and were all convicted of drug trafficking according to the report.

Source: IHR, 02/07/2009

July 1, 2009: Six persons who had demonstrated against the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were reportedly hanged in Iran, reported the Jerusalem Post, based on a telephone call with a source in Tehran. The hanging would have taken place in Mashhad.

There was no independent confirmation of the report.

Sources: Jerusalem Post, 02/07/2009; AGI, 02/07/2009

Va. Death Row Inmate Chooses Electrocution

2009-07-02T22:50:00.001+02:00

A Virginia man set to die later this month for killing a 16-year-old girl and bragging about it in a letter to prosecutors wants to die by electrocution.

Paul Warner Powell is scheduled to be executed July 14 for killing and attempting to rape Stacie Lynn Reed in 1999.

Powell was convicted of Reed's murder, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that verdict. Powell then wrote a taunting letter to prosecutors detailing the crime because he thought he no longer could be charged . He was convicted again in 2003.

Virginia gives condemned inmates the choice between lethal injection and electrocution. Since 1995 when the state began offering the choice, only 4 of the 79 inmates executed have chosen electrocution, including 1 in 2006.

Source: Washington Post, July 2, 2009

Saving Troy Davis From Death Row

2009-07-02T22:37:00.002+02:00

In late May I went to Georgia, where I met with Troy Anthony Davis on death row. He has been there for 18 years, and I wanted to speak with him. I came away convinced that he represents the most compelling case of innocence in decades.

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether to hear the request for a writ of habeas corpus in Davis's case in September hopefully signaling a more careful review of his motion. The reality, though, is that the last time the Justices granted such a motion was 1925 and should the Supreme Court decline the request, the countdown to Davis's execution will begin. It is even more imperative that the Chatham County District Attorney, Larry Chisolm, act now to do the right thing, and move to reopen the case.

The case must be reopened for several reasons: Davis's conviction was based on the word of eyewitnesses. However, since 2001, 7 of the 9 witnesses recanted or contradicted their original testimony. Several said they were coerced by the police. No physical evidence was ever produced that tied Davis to the murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a white off-duty Savannah police officer who was killed as he tried to break up a street fight. The gun used in the shooting was never found.

Second, there is abundant evidence supporting Davis's likely innocence but it has not been aired in court. Our legal system does not allow defendants the opportunity to present new evidence of their innocence after conviction. This intransigence on legal procedural matters is unconscionable when a life is on the line.

The new evidence of his innocence means Davis deserves another day in court, not execution: The prospect that an innocent man might be put to death based on faulty witness testimony, and because the court won't agree to hear evidence of his innocence, represents a tragedy of epic proportions. A wrongful execution cannot be rectified.

More than thirty years' worth of social science and criminal justice research shows that eyewitness testimonies are notoriously unreliable, according to The Innocence Project. Since 1973, a total of 133 men and women have been exonerated or had their death sentences commuted based on post-conviction findings that demonstrated their likely innocence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Adding to the sense of urgency around the Davis case, too, is the long, sour history of wrongly-accused black men receiving "rough justice" in the Deep South. Davis was convicted in Chatham County, a place where genteel traditions and picturesque antebellum mansions mask the harsher truths about the history of slavery, racism, and the Jim Crow era that is still imprinted on the region. Chatham County is home to about 250,000 of Georgia's 9.7 million residents but it has produced 40 % of all death row exonerations in the state.

The department of corrections in Georgia has blocked television media from visiting Davis. But when I met with him on May 29, I was overwhelmed by his quiet confidence, and by the high regard with which he is held by inmates and personnel alike.

It is evident that Davis's jailers prison guards whose faces are usually stony or a blank slate of indifference are moved by his plight. While we talked, I saw guards who clearly had come to believe as I do that Troy Davis has spent nearly 1/2 his life on death row for a crime he did not commit. Outside, as I crossed the parking-lot under a merciless sun, I chatted with a woman who said she knew of a former guard who quit his duty at that facility, rather than have to take part in marching Troy Davis to the death chamber. I share that man's sense of outrage. I've also met with Davis's sister, Marita, and her son. He is nearing adulthood, and has only known his uncle as a death row inmate. But Davis, a former athletic coach, has nonetheless been an effective, compassionate mentor to his only nephew.

Yet it is not only the many details of Davis's humanity that has led to a groundswell of grassroots support for a campaign to reopen the case: It is the undeniable fact that, as a nation of laws, we have an obligation to reconsider death penalty convictions when new evidence of innocence is revealed.

This is why a "strange bedfellows" group of individuals have been drawn together to fight for the reopening of his case, including former FBI Director William Sessions, Pope Benedict XVI; former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Sessions, in fact, has been quite fired up about the need for reforms in a court and criminal justice system that refuses to re-examine a death penalty case despite new evidence that may prove a defendant's innocence.

"Only a full hearing, with all witnesses subject to rigorous cross-examination and a full exploration of the circumstances of their testimony, will provide a means to determine the reliability of the conviction," Sessions wrote in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed last year. "This never happened at [Troy Davis] trial. It must happen now."

The idea that any American might be sentenced to death without being allowed a full airing of all the evidence is an outrage, and represents a blatant flouting of our nation's founding principles. The NAACP has joined with Sessions, former president Jimmy Carter; Amnesty International, and a coalition of other human and civil rights groups to raise awareness of not only just the Troy Davis case, but of the urgent need to push for reforms to the criminal justice system. At www.iamtroy.com, information is available showing why innocence matters, and how all Americans can become a part of the movement to find solutions.

I believe that Troy Davis is innocentand that the family of the slain Savannah police officer, Mark MacPhail, deserve to see the real killer brought to justice. These 2 things are not mutually exclusive, and our Constitution should be strong enough to ensure that both parts of that equation are realized.

Source: Ben Jealous, on National Public Radio, July 1, 2009

Man sentenced to death in Texas released after new DNA evidence is discovered

2009-07-01T17:06:00.005+02:00

A man originally sentenced to death for four murders in Texas has been released on his own recognizance after new DNA evidence was discovered.

Robert Springsteen and co-defendant Michael Scott were released by State District Judge Mike Lynch after prosecutors said they were not prepared to go to trial as scheduled, leaving Judge Lynch to follow through on his promise to the defendants that another delay would mean freedom for the defendants.

Lynch said he not only had to consider the charges but the rights of the men to a trial.

Springsteen and Scott were both convicted of capital murder, with Springsteen receiving a death sentence and Scott receiving life, but the convictions were thrown out on appeal. Now new DNA tests have shown conclusively that the evidence retrieved on scene did not belong to Springsteen, Scott or other previous co-defendants.

The defense lawyers say the new DNA evidence exonerates Scott and Springsteen. After already testing more than 130 people, including friends of Springsteen and Scott, police and firefighters, and others, the prosecution is asking for more time to try and find the person matching the DNA from the crime.

Springsteen and Scott had confessed to the crimes under what their attorney's call coercion and psychological pressure, in addition to other people that confessed who the police later determined to be innocent. The case will return to court August 12.

Source: S. Kreytak, “Suspects in Yogurt Shop Killings Released,” American-Statesman, June 25, 2009

China executes four on anti-drug day

2009-07-01T11:03:00.000+02:00

June 26, 2009: China executed four men for drug trafficking on annual international anti-drug day, in the southern island province of Hainan. Zheng Jinhai, Zeng Yina, Li Anyue and Liu Dacheng, were sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Haikou. They were involved in three cases involving a total of 8.695 kilograms of drugs, the court said.

Source: BBC, 26/06/2009

Saudi Arabia: man execuetd for killing wife

2009-07-01T11:02:00.000+02:00

June 27, 2009: Saudi Arabian authorities beheaded a man convicted of stabbing his wife to death during a domestic quarrel.

An Interior Ministry statement said Ahmed al-Harbi was beheaded in the western port city of Jeddah.

Sources: Taiwan News, 27/06/2009

China: 8 executed

2009-06-30T15:09:00.001+02:00

June 25, 2009: eight people sentenced to death for drug production and trafficking were executed in China.

They were identified as Wang Xilin, Lu Gang, Zhou Zhenjun, Wang Li, Li Ersa and Yan Chaomin were executed for four cases of drug production and sales. The court did not disclose the locations of the executions.

Tian Yulai was executed in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, for trafficking. And in Quanzhou City in southeast China's Fujian Province, Liu Huiyang was executed for manufacturing narcotics in 2005.

Sources: Shanghai Daily, 26/06/2009

Troy Davis: Justices delay death row inmate's appeal

2009-06-30T14:58:00.001+02:00

The U.S. Supreme Court delayed a decision on whether to accept an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate who has gained international support for his claims of innocence in the the murder of a Savannah police officer 2 decades ago.

Troy Davis' case has earned the support of leaders including the pope and former President Jimmy Carter.

The justices were scheduled to announce Monday whether they would take the case of Troy Davis, but no order was released. The court is expected to take up the matter again in September.

Last fall, the Supreme Court granted Davis a stay of execution 2 hours before he was to be put to death. A month later, the justices reversed course and allowed the capital punishment to proceed, but a federal appeals court issued another stay.

The high court's latest delay means Davis will continue to sit on death row.

His supporters Monday delivered about 60,000 signatures in petitions to Chatham County, Georgia, District Attorney Larry Chisolm, calling for a new trial.

"This delay is an indication that the Supreme Court is concerned by the gravity of Troy Davis' innocence claims," said Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. "We will continue to call on all authorities, including the Supreme Court, to finally hear the evidence that has motivated hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to raise their voices and demand justice."

Davis has always maintained his innocence in the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail. Witnesses claimed Davis, then 19, and 2 others were harassing a homeless man in a Burger King restaurant parking lot when the off-duty officer arrived to help the man. Witnesses testified at trial that Davis then shot MacPhail twice and fled.

But since his 1991 conviction, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the police officer. The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board last year held closed-door hearings and reinterviewed Davis and the witnesses. The panel decided against clemency.

MacPhail's mother, Annaliese, told CNN at the time, "This is what we were hoping for, and I hope pretty soon that we will have some peace and start our life, especially my grandchildren -- my grandson and granddaughter. It has overshadowed their lives."

After the justices in October refused to grant a stay of execution, Davis' sister, Martina Correia, told CNN she was "disgusted" by the decision.

"It doesn't make any sense," she said. "We are praying for a miracle or some kind of intervention. We will regroup and fight. We will never stop fighting. We just can't be discouraged. The fight is not over 'til it's over."

10 days after the high court refused last October to intervene, a federal appeals court in Georgia granted a temporary stay of execution. Since then, further appeals by Davis' legal team have dragged on for 8 months.

Prominent figures ranging from the pope to the musical group Indigo Girls have asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial. Other supporters include celebrities Susan Sarandon and Harry Belafonte; world leaders such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town, South Africa; and former and current U.S. lawmakers Bob Barr, Carol Moseley Braun and John Lewis.

Source: CNN,June 29, 2009

Iran: Mandatory death penalty for apostates scrapped

2009-06-30T14:48:00.001+02:00

Proposed amendment reportedly shot down after international outcry.

A member of Iran's Parliament reportedly revealed last week that the country's Parliamentary Committee has stricken the mandatory death penalty for those who leave Islam from proposals for an amended penal code.

Citing a BBC Persian news service report on Tuesday (June 23), United Kingdom-based Christian Solidarity International (CSW) announced on Friday (June 26) that a member of Iran's Legal and Judicial Committee of Parliament, Ali Shahrokhi, had told the Iranian state news agency (IRNA) of the decision to eliminate the mandatory death penalty amendment, which had drawn international protests.

The Parliamentary Committee had come under intense international pressure to drop clauses from the Islamic Penal Code Bill that allowed stoning and made death the mandatory punishment for apostates.

The new penal code was originally approved in September 2008 by a preliminary parliamentary vote of 196-7.

In Fridays statement, CSW said that the bill must now pass through a final parliamentary vote before being sent to Iran's most influential body, the Guardian Council, which will rule on it.

The council is made up of 6 conservative theologians appointed by Irans Supreme Leader and 6 jurists nominated by the judiciary and approved by Parliament. This body has the power to veto any bill it deems inconsistent with the constitution and Islamic law.

The Christian and Baha'i communities of Iran are most likely to be affected by this decision. Iran has been criticized for its treatment of Bahais, Zoroastrians and Christians, who have all suffered under the current regime.

Joseph Grieboski, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, said the timing of the announcement of the decision during protests over contested elections might not be coincidental.

"Were the regime to maintain [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's presidency then pass and enforce a restrictive penal code, the international pressure on Iran would be unbearable for the regime," said Grieboski. "I do not consider it a sign of opening up. Instead, I see it as a sign of self-preservation."

Security Backlash

Huge protests over the election results demonstrated considerable opposition to the Iranian government's heavy-handed tactics, and although the official churches have taken no official stance, many Christians have supported the opposition, according to sources connected to social networking sites.

In the face of the massive protests, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Hassan Qashqavi, released a statement condemning Western involvement in Iranian affairs and accusing the BBC and Voice of America networks of spreading "anarchy and vandalism."

This passing of blame bodes ill for minorities in the country, including Christians, whom the Iranian government sees as pawns of the West; they could expect even harsher treatment in a feared post-election clamp-down.

"Since minorities, especially Baha'is and Christians, are often seen as fronts for the West, we can expect that they will feel the greatest backlash by the regime during the protests, and I would argue an even worse crackdown on them if Ahmadinejad and [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei come out of this," said Grieboski.

An Iranian Christian who requested anonymity told Compass that both Christians and Iranians as a whole were tired of the dictatorial regime and asked for prayers for relief.

"The people are really tired, they have no hope, mentally, financially, spiritually, it is really difficult to live in Iran," the source said. "You can't have a private life, you can't make a decision about what you believe, women can't even decide what to wear. We just pray for the whole nation."

The Iranian source was reticent to predict how the government might react to Christians following the elections but said that if there were a reaction, they could be among the 1st victims.

"So what the reaction of the government will be we can't be 100 % sure," the source said, "but they could have a very radical reaction."

Iranian Christians Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, who were arrested on March 5 for their Christian activities, are still held in the notorious Evin Prison. The facility has drawn criticism for its human rights violations and executions in recent years.

Compass has learned that the women have been placed in solitary confinement.

Source: Compassdirect.org, June 30, 2009

Iran: Human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei has been arrested

2009-06-29T18:37:00.003+02:00

Iran Human Rights, June 29: According to sources in Iran, Mohammad Mostafaei, lawyer of more than 20 minors on the death row, has been arrested by the Iranian authorities.

According to some sources he was arrested 5 days ago. We have no further details about where he is being kept or why he was arrested.

According to our sources Mr. Mostafei was arrested on Thursday June 25.

Following the last two week’s pro-democracy demonstrations, several known human rights defenders and lawyers such as Abdolfattah Soltani have been arrested in Iran.

Iran Human Rights has earlier issued warning that those arrested are at risk of torture and forced confessions.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesman of Iran Human Rights, said: "The United Nations should ask Iranian authorities to immediately release all those arrested and send a special envoy to Iran in order to guarantee their safety".

Source: IHR, June 29, 2009

California's lethal-injection plan is proven to be inhumane

2009-06-29T12:31:00.001+02:00

On Tuesday, California prison officials will hear public comment on their proposed procedures for conducting lethal-injection executions. Although officials claim their goal is to achieve humane executions, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation plans to stick with a three-drug protocol that risks just the opposite.

The protocol is so fraught with danger that it would be illegal to use to euthanize a dog or cat in this state.

It involves the administration of three drugs: first, an anesthetic; second, a drug that paralyzes the inmate; and third, potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Activists have denounced the practice of paralyzing inmates before executing them, and for good reason. Executioners are typically not qualified to administer anesthesia, let alone monitor the inmate's reaction to the drug throughout the execution. If the inmate is paralyzed and the anesthesia fails, he will feel the excruciating burn of the potassium chloride as it scorches through his veins, but will be unable to indicate he is in pain. His death will appear peaceful, and the public will never know that yet another execution has been botched.

Such a procedure would be illegal if used on animals in California. Even when accompanied by anesthesia, paralytic drugs are generally banned in euthanasia because of the risk that failed anesthesia can go undetected in a paralyzed animal. For that reason, a shelter worker who administers a paralytic during animal euthanasia is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a $2,000 fine and a year in jail. That's been the law in this state since 1978.

For the past three decades, the primary method of animal euthanasia in California has been a simple, one-drug procedure: the overdose of a barbiturate called sodium pentobarbital. This method causes a painless death, usually within a few minutes. When it revised the law in 1998 to outlaw another dangerous euthanasia method — carbon monoxide — the California Senate Judiciary Committee wrote that "there is a general consensus that a lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital is the most humane way to euthanize unwanted dogs and cats."

California is not alone. Euthanasia by use of a single drug — sodium pentobarbital — is the preferred method of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Humane Society of the United States, and every major animal welfare organization in the country. The vast majority of states — 42 out of 50 — prohibit the use of paralytics in animal euthanasia.

If this method of killing is unconscionable for animals, why does California insist on using it to execute people? Prison officials cannot claim ignorance. There are decades, even centuries, of evidence that these drugs have the potential to inflict a painful and horrifying death.

In 1868, a Swedish physiologist described paralytic drugs as "the most cruel of all poisons." In the 1970s, military officers in the Philippines, Brazil and Uruguay used paralytics to torture political prisoners. The Humane Society's current training manual states that its members have a "moral and ethical duty" to end the practice of injecting animals with paralytic drugs.

Some Californians believe that inmates should suffer the same painful death that they inflicted on their victims. We cannot deny the grief and rage that accounts for these emotions, but the Constitution requires humane executions. It is time to abandon a drug that has been used to torture both people and animals, and has been rejected by veterinary and animal welfare communities for decades.

Source : Ty Alper, Special to the Mercury News, 06/27/2009. TY ALPER is the associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, and is the author of "Anesthetizing the Public Conscience: Lethal Injection and Animal Euthanasia." He wrote this article for the Mercury News.

New Mexico death penalty repeal set to take effect

2009-06-28T11:49:00.003+02:00

Although New Mexico officially abolished the death penalty, that doesn't mean there won't be another execution in the state.

There are still 2 men on death row, their sentences untouched by the repeal and the governor unwilling to commute them. 2 other potential death cases are in the legal pipeline, awaiting trial. Conceivably, the state could end up putting someone to death a decade or 2 after capital punishment was outlawed, given the drawn-out appeals typical in such cases.

"Nonsensical," sums up Jeff Buckels, head of the capital crimes unit of the New Mexico Public Defender Department.

"It makes no sense to be seeking the death penalty in a state which has abolished the death penalty," he said.

After a decade of effort, capital punishment opponents managed to persuade the Legislature in March to replace lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The new law applies to certain murders committed as of July 1 and made New Mexico just the 2nd state , after New Jersey, to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty 33 years ago.

Unlike New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who commuted the sentences of eight men when he signed the death penalty repeal in 2007, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declined to commute the sentences of Robert Fry of Farmington and Timothy Allen of Bloomfield.

The Legislature clearly intended the new law to go into effect on July 1 and the governor respects that decision, Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.

"He has no intention of commuting the sentence of anyone facing the death penalty before that effective date," Gallegos said this week.

Fry and Allen are still in the midst of their appeals processes, with no execution dates in sight. New Mexico has executed only one person since 1960: child killer Terry Clark in 2001.

The state Supreme Court is being asked, meanwhile, to rule out the possibility of death sentences in 2 pending murder cases. Michael Astorga is charged in the shooting of a Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy and Billy Joe Watson is accused of hiring another man to kill a Roosevelt
County rancher.

Among other arguments, their lawyers contend it would be unconstitutional to pursue death sentences now that New Mexico has decided it is no longer an acceptable punishment.

"It's over with, and the repeal applies to everybody," said Ruidoso lawyer Gary Mitchell, who represents Watson.

The attorney general's office disagrees, saying the repeal was specific and clear in its effective date and that defendants in pre-July 1 cases don't benefit from the new law.

"We certainly think the community is really expecting us to do everything we can to pursue justice and keep the community safe," said Pat Davis, a spokesman for Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, who is prosecuting Astorga in the high-profile case.

Defense lawyers argue the state shouldn't continue to pour money into death-eligible cases, which require a heightened level of scrutiny and are more expensive than others.

"They are sucking up resources that could be better used to promote public safety," said defense lawyer Mark Donatelli, a longtime lobbyist for repeal.

Viki Elkey, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, said her group was advised that a death penalty repeal could not be written to apply retroactively or to affect pending cases.

The new law might have been crafted to effectively preclude any further executions , for example, by eliminating the procedures for lethal injection, Donatelli said. But doing that could well have made it harder to get the repeal through the Legislature, he said.

Death penalty opponents are hopeful that court decisions, or commutations by a future governor , Richardson leaves office next year , or some combination of the 2 will rule out any further executions.

Such an execution "would be an appalling spectacle," Donatelli said.

Source: Associated Press, June 27, 2009

Senior Iranian cleric says rioters should be severely punished

2009-06-27T20:40:00.004+02:00

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami says those involved in 'destructive acts' during postelection protests are enemies of God and 'should receive the severest of the punishments.'

A senior cleric who is close to Iran's supreme leader said in a Friday sermon that anyone who engaged in violence in protests over alleged fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should receive the "severest of punishments," according to state broadcasting.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a confidant of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the unsanctioned public gatherings and rallies as being against Islamic law.

In the sermon, he described anyone taking part in "destructive acts" as muharib, enemies of God whose annihilation by true believers is religiously permitted.

"Anyone who takes up arms, be it guns or knives, is a muharib and Islam has said that muharib should receive the severest of the punishments," said Khatami, who shares a last name with a popular former reformist president but has opposite political views.

After refusing to grant demonstrators permission to protest election results, officials have increasingly cast those who massed in the streets for a series of peaceful rallies as extremists opposed to the government or dupes of antagonistic foreign leaders.

Khatami did not directly equate peaceful protesters with rioters, but most observers say that distinction may be lost on the club-wielding pro-government Basiji and Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilantes who have allegedly been beating demonstrators. Critics regard their actions as an attempt to terrorize dissidents into submission.

Instead, the cleric thanked the Basiji forces for their help in quelling unrest. Khamenei last week appeared to give such militiamen sanction to crack down violently on protesters, sparking fiery riots through central Tehran the following day.

Khatami also urged the courts to come down hard on those arrested in connection with the protests.

"I call on officials of the judicial branch to deal severely and ruthlessly with the leaders of the agitations whose fodder comes from America and Israel so that everyone learns a lesson from it," he said.

In Washington, President Obama offered his highest praise yet for Ahmadinejad's challenger, and said more strongly than before that his long-standing diplomatic goal of engagement with Iran could be affected by the election crisis.

"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama said after a White House meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "And we don't yet know how any potential dialogue will have been affected until we see what's happened" in Iran.

Obama said that despite the Iranian government's crackdown on protests, the U.S. and its allies have a national security interest in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied that its nuclear program is aimed at building nuclear bombs.

The president says Iranians must determine the outcome of the country's election, but went further Friday in hailing Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the reform candidate who has continued to challenge the results.

In an earlier remark, Obama questioned whether Mousavi's election would affect key issues. Since then, Obama said, it's become clear that Mousavi has "captured the imagination" of pro-reform protesters.

"He has become a representative of many of those people who are on the streets and who have displayed extraordinary bravery and extraordinary courage," Obama said.

Around Iran on Friday, small groups of people released green and black balloons in symbolic acts of protest meant to honor Mousavi and those killed in the election aftermath.

Most independent analysts and Iran experts regard the results of the June 12 election, which Ahmadinejad claimed to have won in a landslide, as highly suspicious.

Western officials and the United Nations have decried a broad crackdown on dissidents and activists. Diplomats at a meeting of wealthy Group of 8 countries in Italy issued a statement condemning the violence in Iran.

Russia, often a backer of Iran, joined the West in noting some unease about the Iranian government's reaction to the unrest.

"Naturally, we express serious concern over the use of force, the death of civilians," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Trieste, Italy, according to Interfax news agency. "We do not interfere in the internal affairs of Iran, and we base our position on the principle that all issues that have arisen in the context of the election will be resolved in accordance with democratic procedures."

Khatami criticized Western leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as hypocrites. "You are a miserable fellow," he said, addressing Ban. Many children were killed in Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip this year, he said, adding, "You were not worried then?"

The election, which reportedly drew 85% of eligible voters, showed the "power and grandeur" of Iran's Islamic system, Khatami said, and he urged Iranians to let bygones be bygones.

"We should put aside the preelection resentments and act brotherly," he said. "We are one nation and one country. Let us not institutionalize grudges and instead institutionalize brotherhood and friendship against the foreigners who have prepared their sharp satanic teeth to loot the legacy of your martyrs."

Source: Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2009

Iran: Danger of executions after torture and forced confession

2009-06-27T13:17:00.002+02:00

According to the Iranian daily Kayhan (close to Ali Khamenei, the Iranian authority's supreme leader) the person who took the film showing Neda Agha Soltan being killed by a bullet has been arrested and confessed participation in planning the shooting at Neda.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights, warned that many of those arrested under the pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran could be in danger of torture, forced confessions and possibly execution. He said to the Italian daily Corriere della sera: "we have entered a new phase where the Iranian authorities, by taking forced confessions is preparing further arresting and possibly execution of some of those participated in the demonstrations". He continued: "The Iranian authorities will be at the same time using these constructed TV-confessions to intimidate those who are sending pictures and reports of the demonstrations to the international media".

Emphasizing that several hundred detainees are in risk of torture, forced confessions and execution, he asked the world community and UN to intervene and guarantee the safety and humane treatment of those who were arrested.

Several hundred people have been arrested after the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tehran, and they are being held at different detention centers such as Evin prison.

We still do not have the exact number of those arrested or killed in relation to the pro-democracy demonstrations of the past 2 weeks in Iran.

Source: Iranhr, June 27, 2009